Just as I was leaving the house for a calming spin on the fixie yesterday I got the call. Nita got hit by a car on her commute home. She’s fine: a minor bump on the ass, a little soreness today. The bike needs a new front wheel, the rear needs some work too. But otherwise, she escaped any real harm. The collision happened on campus, at one of those ambiguous transition zones between road and bike path where we cross from vehicle to pedestrian. Basically, the woman that hit her wasn’t looking and didn’t see her. She did stop, and gave her name (Nita got her license plate number as well), but did not give up her insurance information and apparently got a little indignant when asked, replying that “In Pennsylvania, bikes are considered vehicles and you need to obey the law” (which, of course, Nita had been doing). We’ll see how this ends up, hopefully it will simply conclude with the exchange of a little cash to cover the new wheel(s) and be done. Oddly, when Nita called the police (and was redirected to the campus police) to make an accident report in case there was an insurance claim, they said they would contact the driver. Hopefully that won’t annoy her into failing to cooperate amicably. But, when Nita hops on her other bike to get into work today, she will join the ranks of jaded bike commuters who can tell war stories about when they got hit. Color me proud!
Back at home I started packing in earnest. The bikes took longer than I had hoped and I was still in the garage at 12:30 playing with different configurations in the box. I think I have one I am happy with, but I need to pick up some more zip ties to feel really satisfied with the state of affairs. It weighed out at 75 lbs, which is heavy by airline standards, but not bad considering that there are 2 bikes in there. I did take out the tires, one chain, and the skewers to keep the weight down. Now I have to see if I can manage to get everything else packed in maneuverable luggage!
The official PBP site is running near full capacity and now includes interactive maps of the route, and a site that should host video of the event (including the start and finish). There is also rider tracking that should report our position during the ride (there are also instructions to get it via phone or text, but that seems a bit much). Our plate numbers are: Me 6614, Joe 6615, Billy 6596, Steve 6595; for those of you who want to follow along. With any luck, one of those numbers will be good enough to track all of us, but any drama along the route will be immediately apparent if a gap forms.
I also checked the weather. It looks to be improving, but there is still some rain forecast along the route: here’s the outlook for Paris and for Brest.
